Is there any more word on hires or schemes that Michigan is going to be running this year? I'm getting nervous already, about ND, and I hope U of M can finally field a team to be proud of on both sides of the ball!

Is there any more word on hires or schemes that Michigan is going to be running this year? I'm getting nervous already, about ND, and I hope U of M can finally field a team to be proud of on both sides of the ball!

I believe they rounded out their coaching staff about a week after signing day by adding the DB and DL coaches. I believe they brought in a former Wolve in Mallory for DB coach but I cannot remember who the D line coach is. Looks like a 4-3 scheme for the upcoming year, this should help Roh's development by keeping him on the line and out of coverage but I have some concern about DL depth since they were not able to recruit much on the interior DL. Maybe this staff can get Will Campbell to reach his potential, which would help tremendously. Here's an article on Mattison discussing the scheme somewhat and his philosopy:

Well if anyone is interested here are the $$$ amounts they are going to pay Hoke. Seems a tad high to me for the life of the contract considering nothing has been proven on the field yet, heck I would of walked to A2 for that kind of dough!

_________________"When you eat crow, if you put barbecue on it, it's not so bad."-Brady Hoke

March 30th, 2011, 4:47 pm

steensn

RIP Killer

Joined: June 26th, 2006, 1:03 pmPosts: 13429

Re: Hoke Named UM Coach

Quote:

It worked well enough once to chart an impeccable course for almost half a century, so it’s no surprise Michigan returned to that time-tested formula to fix its woebegone football fortunes.

Bo Schembechler, the native son of Ohio who jolted the Wolverines juggernaut out of the doldrums, would approve of Brady Hoke as the right guy for the immense task of retooling Michigan in much the same way it was accomplished back in 1969.

Schembechler rolled into Ann Arbor with a commitment to toughness and a stubborn refusal to bend under the behemoth 200 miles to the south in Columbus.

Ohio State was coming off an unbeaten national championship and a 50-14 spanking of Michigan the season before Schembechler took over, much as the Buckeyes rule the Big Ten now with six straight conference titles and a three-year dominance of the Wolverines by a cumulative score of 100-24.

Now we’ll see if Hoke, who hails from Fairmont, outside Dayton, can do the same as fellow Ohio native Schembechler, the pride of Barberton, near Akron, and work some magic.

It‘s not like the new Michigan Man won’t have weapons, and it’s not like he doesn’t fit the mold of those who followed Schembechler and kept the Wolverines purring after the legend’s retirement in 1989.

Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr were both Schembechler assistants, and Hoke coached the defensive line under Carr in Michigan’s last national championship season, 1997.

He then cut an impressive enough résumé at Ball State and San Diego State to be the choice when Michigan pulled the plug after three failed seasons under Rich Rodriguez.

Rodriguez never was a fit from the day he arrived, which wasn‘t his fault, but most certainly was a fact. He didn‘t know the traditions or value why they were important, so he needlessly alienated some fans and then went 15-22, including 6-18 in the Big Ten, to help the undecided join the mob.

Hoke wasn’t much of a sexy hire, in much the same way the headlines blared “Bo Who?“ when Schembechler arrived.

The swashbuckling coaching star of last season, Jim Harbaugh, was out there as the slam dunk, as was another alum, Les Miles of LSU.

Harbaugh, though, had the wanderlust for the NFL in him, so he grabbed the San Francisco 49ers’ millions. Miles, whose impressive record is an effective rebuttal to the mountain of evidence that he’s just a lucky stooge, is now getting a hint of the Willie Lyles pay-for-recruits stink floating his way.

So, Hoke looks the more solid hire every minute. But nothing he does really counts until September.

FACING BIG ISSUES

At least Hoke hasn’t done anything to offend anyone yet, which puts him a few notches ahead of Rodriguez’s first season already. Whether Hoke can win with the talent, and the holes, RichRod left behind is a vexing mystery for a win-starved fan base.

There is the dynamic Denard Robinson at quarterback, albeit in an offense different from the one that allowed him to lay statistical waste to the opposition last season.

Robinson rushed for a Division I QB record 1,702 yards and passed for 2,570, but there’s another number that bothers new offensive coordinator Al Borges.

"He came out of 10 games last year (due to injury),” Borges said. “. . . I'd like the kid to be able to start and finish a football game. If it means handing the ball to the running back a few more times, if indeed the tailbacks are worthy of the carries, I think that's a great approach."

Michigan doesn’t have a proven tailback, but it has candidates to go with an above-average offensive line that returns four starters. The wide receiving corps is deep.

There are no tight ends with any résumé, nor fullbacks of much note, which is a casualty of transitioning from Rodriguez’s flashy spread option to Hoke’s more meat-and-potatoes pro-style attack.

Robinson will be under center a lot, which he hasn’t done much since high school. If he gets injured again, untested sophomore Devin Gardner will be the backup, with Tate Forcier having transferred.

Defensively, Michigan was a train wreck last year, and it’s up to former Baltimore Ravens coordinator Greg Mattison to fix that. He’s back for a second tour of duty, having previously held the job in the mid-’90s when the Wolverines annually rendered Ohio State’s talented offenses impotent.

Mattison also was Florida’s defensive coordinator when the Gators famously held Ohio State to 82 yards in a 41-14 shocker at the BCS national championship game in January 2007.

Mattison, Borges and Hoke seem unified on building Michigan into a more physical, more unified team, which seems a modest goal for a program so high profile — until the autopsy of the Rodriguez years is examined.

Michigan was seldom an effective second-half team and almost never a dangerous fourth-quarter team. Promising starts in 2010 and ’11 morphed into colossal collapses down the stretch, which suggests that Hoke’s biggest coaching job must focus as much on attitude and belief as X’s and O’s.

There’s also an overlooked talent angle, which Hoke didn’t have much time to address via recruiting upon his hiring in January. While Rodriguez hit spectacularly on some finds, like Robinson and some of the Wolverines’ receivers, it’s folly to think Michigan can compete evenly with Ohio State if talent isn’t better identified right off the top.

In Rodriguez’s final class of 27 signees, 11 hailed from Ohio. That sounded great, given that Michigan always thrived upon luring away headliners like Rob Lytle, Dan Dierdorf, Elvis Grbac, Desmond Howard and Charles Woodson. But Ohio State didn’t offer a scholarship to a single one of the 11 in-state players Rodriguez signed in 2010.

One man’s trash might be another man’s treasure, but the currency to win Big Ten championships starts with elite talent, and Michigan hasn’t gotten enough of that lately.

Brady Hoke begins his first training camp as Michigan's football coach in about two months. (AP Photo)Pryor says no to CFL's Roughriders Pryor a developmental quarterback Oakland A's fire manager Bob Geren Nowitzki: 'I feel great' for Game 5 Report: Britt charged resisting arrest Brady Hoke begins his first training camp as Michigan's football coach in about two months.

Here's a game-by-game breakdown of how the Wolverines' season will go:

Sept. 3 vs. Western Michigan (6-6): This will be one of the more anticipated matchups among the college football openers. Not because Western is such a threat, but because it's the debut for Hoke and the first opportunity to see what the Wolverines' new offense is going to look like under offensive coordinator Al Borges. Just how is Borges going to use quarterback Denard Robinson's athleticism as Michigan, presumably, switches from a spread to more of a pro-style offense?WIN

Sept. 10 vs. Notre Dame (8-5): Michigan expects to break its own attendance record for a football game in the first night game in Michigan Stadium history. The current record is 113,090, set in last year's opener against Connecticut. It's amazing how much hype the Michigan-Notre Dame game has generated in recent years, only to have both teams eventually collapse later in the season.WIN

Sept. 17 vs. Eastern Michigan (2-10): Michigan found a team it can beat that wears green and white. WIN

Sept. 24 vs. San Diego State (9-4): Now this is ironic scheduling. Hoke faces the team he rebuilt during the past two seasons. Ryan Lindley, who developed into a solid quarterback under Borges, will come to Ann Arbor to try to make his former coaches pay the price for leaving. The Aztecs are considered the third-best team in the Mountain West behind Boise State and TCU. This is a dangerous game for Hoke. LOSS

Oct. 1 vs. Minnesota (3-9): A tough week for Hoke, coming off a loss and going into the Big Ten opener. How will he get the Wolverines to handle adversity? Even Rich Rodriguez used to slap around the nonconference opponents and get off to a fast start. It's the first Little Brown Jug game in three years. Michigan's incredible dominance, winning 19 of the past 20 and 36 of the past 39 against the Gophers, continues.WIN

Oct. 8 at Northwestern (7-6): The Wolverines are also playing the Wildcats for the first time in three years. Some are likely to predict a 5-0 record for the second straight year for Michigan heading into this one. Either way, there will be no perfect record when the Wolverines leave Evanston. Beware of the Wildcats.LOSS

Oct. 15 at Michigan State (11-2): Hoke quickly re-established Michigan's turf in terms of in-state recruiting by landing early oral commitments from key high-end recruits. A victory in East Lansing will keep that momentum going for Michigan. A fourth straight loss by the Wolverines to the Spartans should reaffirm Michigan State's recent superiority to recruits.LOSS

Oct. 29 vs. Purdue (4-8): Purdue's offense couldn't even get in the end zone against former Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson's slapstick unit last year. This is about the time new defensive coordinator Greg Mattison's influence should start to show a little more. The Boilermakers will be shut down again.WIN

Nov. 5 at Iowa (8-5): It looks like a challenging year for the Hawkeyes, who have had off-the-field issues to go with losing more than half of their starters. On the other hand, Kirk Ferentz's teams have been dangerous when the expectations aren't as high. They're not likely to lose a much-needed home game like this one, against an opponent like Michigan, in November. LOSS

Nov. 12 at Illinois (7-6): First one to 70 wins. This is a rematch of that wacky 67-65, three-overtime victory by the Wolverines last season. Illinois will be playing its seventh of eight home games. Early departures to the NFL hurt the Illini's chances for a big season. Michigan has a chance to steal one on the road.WIN

Nov. 19 vs. Nebraska (10-4): Great matchup of athletic quarterbacks — Robinson for the Wolverines, Taylor Martinez for the Huskers. Both are explosive runners but have to prove they can be more consistent in the passing game. The difference will be on defense. While the Wolverines' D shows late-season progress, Nebraska's Blackshirts are on another level.LOSS

Nov. 26 vs. Ohio State (12-1): How will the Buckeyes handle all this turmoil following the departures of coach Jim Tressel and quarterback Terrelle Pryor? Tressel was 9-1 against Michigan. Ohio State still has plenty of talent without Pryor, but the controversy going on in Columbus could be the perfect storm that allows Hoke to come in and end the Wolverines' seven-game losing streak to the Buckeyes. It will leave Michigan with the same regular-season record as a year ago under Rodriguez, but the mood will be much different. The defense will be improving, the conference record will be more respectable and, most of all, the embarrassing streak against hated Ohio State will have ended.WIN

I think the ND game will be a lot more difficult than this reporter wrote about. In his 1st year of Coaching, he had ND go to a bowl game, took under rated QB's and got performance out of them, and got a pretty solid defense to work. Now that the young team has had a year to digest Coach Kelly's system, they will be a far more potent and difficult team. Of course they will make a run for the National Title, because of their semi-permenant soft schedule, but we'll see them turn a corner. Hopefully, for the sake of the University, they will start playing the more difficult teams instead of Rutgers, the Acadamies, and the other three or four gimme games they have. ND's greed got them out of the Big 10/11/12 and now as an independent they can draw all the money they want, but not the really good schedules.

I still think Coach Kelly will have a very tough team, with a very soft schedule...

_________________Acts 4:13, 1 Cor. 2:1-5, Rom. 12:1-2

June 11th, 2011, 11:52 pm

WarEr4Christ

QB Coach - Brian Callahan

Joined: October 26th, 2005, 11:48 pmPosts: 3056Location: Elkhart, In.

Re: Hoke Named UM Coach

Any news or updates outta Michigan, being outta state I don't hear anything and I'm starving to hear progress and development out of the Wolverines. I desperately want a solid Big Ten/Twelve division again....